In 2012 the national department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) convened all the relevant stakeholders in sport at an Indaba to adopt the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP).
However, five years later, a large percentage of the strategic objectives listed in the NSRP have not been implemented by these stakeholders.
Is it a case of most of them not fully understanding their role under the NSRP?
From the outset, it must be pointed out that, as it is with such strategic plans and more commonly the much preferred “Indaba”, people often do not go back to their constituencies to further engage them on ways on how to implement the very same objectives, which they’ve intensively discussed and adopted at these events.
The NSRP is a well-crafted document consisting of good intentions through the listed Strategic Objectives but like most other strategies, it requires more stakeholders than just government to implement it.
To date, very few local municipalities and according to our knowledge, only one provincial sports department has started to develop and align their own sport and recreation plans to that of the NSRP.
In our interaction with municipalities, we’ve discovered that sport and recreation for some, is not a priority in terms of budgetary concerns.
For others, the notion of “creating an enabling environment” for sport and recreation is something that’s perhaps best left to government, to deal with.
The creation of such an “enabling environment” is found in the relevant prescripts of the Constitution and all tiers of government are bound by it under their “service delivery” mandate.
Some experts are of the view that all non-governmental stakeholders should commit themselves to firstly, get a greater understanding of the strategic objectives of the NSRP and secondly, they themselves should take the lead for its actual implementation.
The NSRP is very clear as to, which stakeholders are “responsible” and which are “delivery” partners respectively, for each of these strategic objectives.
Local government’s role within the NSRP is clearly defined and it should prioritise its key mandate of providing sport and recreation facilities of which specific funding are available under the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) to fund these facilities.
SRSA has also ‘ring-fenced” some R300m from the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to fund sports and recreation facilities across the country.
Most of the strategic objectives of the NSRP have a specific target date and the whole Plan will be reviewed in 2030 and one could argue that many of its components are presently a distant dream for most, when it comes to its actual implementation.
The key ingredient that’s required to create a sustainable “winning nation-mentality” would be a grassroots intervention and local government is an essential “responsible partner” of sports facilities, which could assist with the true implementation of this respective strategic objective.
The solution to making South Africa a ‘winning nation” again, would simply be found in a commitment by all stakeholders to get to understand their mandate under the NSRP.
Gerrit Davids is the Lead Consultant for the consulting firm, TaranisCo Advisory CC, which assists provincial and local government with the development of their Sport & Recreation Plans as well as assisting sports organisations with strategic development implementation of their programmes. | Email: info@sportsbusiness.co.za
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